DBS has signed up over 200 Cumulus users since launch in 2012

At the beginning of October, we published a story on the Cumulus cloud business solution by the 23rd Century subsidiary, Devoted Business Solutions (DBS) in which, based on a press release by SAP, we implied that the Nano Appliance implementation was DBS’s only SAP implementation to date. DBS MD, Richard Maulana however got in touch with us to let us know that conclusion was just wrong as Nano is actually a September 2012 implementation and that since then they have signed up over 200 customers in Zimbabwe and beyond.

Below is the full statement from DBS:

Richard Maulana, the MD of the 23rd Century Systems subsidiary, Devoted Business Solutions

Cumulus launch date

Cumulus was launched on the 6^th of September 2012 at an event hosted at the Meikles Hotel in Harare. The launch of the product was a first for Africa in terms of SAP cloud computing products. Subsequent launch events were hosted in February 2013 in Uganda and Rwanda to cover the East African market.

Nano sign up and clarification

Nano Appliance Centre was the first customer on Cumulus in September 2012. Nano became the 1^st company to sign up for a SAP Business One OnDemand (Cumulus) in Africa. Nano’s decision to sign up for service was aligned to their strategy for rapid growth with minimum investment in a business management solution for their business. The SAP press release was a showcase of how SAP solutions can assist small businesses manage their operations and drive growth. SAP (as with other manufacturers and service providers) issues press releases to highlight product adoption through real life application of their products. The focus of the press release was the customer (not SAP or the implementing partner) and how they have used the solution in their day to day operations. This press release was initiated and coordinated by SAP not DBS.

Performance of product in market

Since launch of the Cumulus product DBS has signed up over 200 users for the service. The bulk of these are Zimbabwean customers with the balance coming out of Uganda, Kenya and Angola. We are happy with the performance of the product considering the nature of internet access in Africa and general distrust towards cloud services. We hope to grow our numbers on the solution through pricing revisions and enhancements in functionality in the current solution.